re: Do you know anyone who's a compulsive gambler?

I don't care what you believe. She's locked up a frickton of machines the last few months and she plays high roller slots. As a matter of fact, all of it is in my safe.

She's the highest card level at Caesars and Choctaw in Oklahoma. We get "free" cruises, flights to Vegas, rooms, foid, etc.

When she goes to the casino, she has a budget of several k. I take the credit cards and debit cards. She just locked up a machine for 10k just the other day.

Back in the 80's when I sold computers in downtown BR I worked w a former LSU Math professor. He was an admitted compulsive gambler. Said it started when he was just out of school in the 60's and worked for the government/armament/nuclear program in Nevada and he and his buddies would spend their weekends in Vegas. He said at one point it was so bad he spent weeks sleeping in various parks in New Orleans before he straightened out.

My former BIL is one also. He siphoned part of his salary off to pay for his habit but ended up running up credit cards, etc., before his wife found out. He got clean and they stayed together and then THEY WON THE LOTTO for like 1.5 million. This was like 6-8 years ago. Well, apparently he wasn't finished gambling and blew all of that also. Heard a week ago that his wife left him.

It's all dopemine driven. We are all addicted to it to some degre or another. But, there is hope. The challenge is we have to unwire our brain that gets rewired for the dopemine high after years of addiction.